Our Lives as Background Students
by LoZmercenary002
Summary: Everyone knows the story of Harry James Potter and all of his craziness, but no-one ever stops to think about the other people who went to the great wizarding school. I've spoken with the writers of the Quibbler and they've allowed me to tell my side of the story.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1 - A Long Way From Home

Everyone knows the story of Harry James Potter and all of his craziness, but no-one ever stops to think about the other people who went to the great wizarding school. I've spoken with the writers of the Quibbler and they've allowed me to tell my side of the story.

My mates and I were at the school long before Potter and his gang popped up. Our first year was awkward. As far as I knew, I was the only Metamorphmagus at the school. My best mate is an Animagus, but it's not quite the same, is it? Anyway, I thought it was going to be hard being different. Luckily, Avri was there for me the whole way, even the first time we got on the Hogwarts Express.

"Could you stop clawing my shoulder?" I swatted at her paw. She tilted her nose up after withdrawing her nails from my collarbone. "I have half a mind to put you in a kennel," I joked, fighting through the crowd to get to one of the open doors of the train. "Or make you walk," I added. That got her attention. She cuddled around my neck and rubbed her little cat face against my cheek. "Yeah, yeah," I rolled my eyes and shoved passed a few other students to get through the doorway. We didn't have anyone to send us off. My father was a muggle and my mother worked with Avri's mum at a medical ward for both magic and non-magic patients. Her father was involved with the ministry and, while he wanted to be here crying over his little bird, he had work to attend to. So, the two of us ventured here alone. Us against the world.

"Excuse you," a blonde girl snapped at me as I pushed past her in the hall. Avri hissed at her as I kept walking. I wasn't much for people. I'd rather talk to the cat on my shoulder than say one thing to another person.

"You," I addressed a small shy looking kid in one of the compartments, "scat." I threw Avri's luggage onto the rail above his head, making him bolt out of the cabin with his stuff. I tossed my backpack next to her trunk and flopped down into the seat. "Can you tell I'm nervous?" I laughed, half expecting her to yell at me about being mean to the poor kid. She jumped off of my shoulder and onto the bench across from mine.

"Your hair is green," she said after morphing back to her usual self, which was up for debate since she spent most of her time as a small greyish cat after learning the skill the previous year.

I glanced at my reflection in the window. Sure enough, my shaggy, chin length hair had changed from brown to green. It was hard to hide emotions when they were worn on my sleeve, or head rather. I looked back across at her. "How are you holding up?"

She shrugged, her messy blonde hair falling in front of her face. "It's just school, right? How bad can it be?"

I leaned forward quickly. "Don't say that!" I looked around for something wooden. "Never say that!" I knocked on the wooden door to the compartment, making some of the passers-by stare at me. I'm sure I looked a spectacle with my panicked face and solid lime hair. I sat back up and tried to straighten my clothes then cleared my throat and stared out the window with my fist under my chin. "I don't need you jinxing me, Avri."

"Oh, if I jinx you, you'll know," she smirked, propping her feet up on my knees.

All of the first years were wearing their robes already. Avri and I had packed ours but had no intention of wearing them until we were about to arrive. I was wearing a blue plaid button up shirt with a Smiths shirt under it and a pair of old faded black jeans. I was sure I looked out of place in my muggle street clothes, but I didn't care. Avri was wearing a FIFA hoodie I'd bought her when I took her to her first football game. Her family didn't know much about muggle sports, being pure blood and all, but she took to it like an owl to the air. She even got her dad to join us a few times and he loved it, too.

The cabins filled up quickly as the station's hustle and bustle began to die down. Two ginger kids passed by the window, looking like they were about to join us, but Avri gave them her death glare and they kept walking. I really didn't understand how a couple of eleven-year-olds could be intimidating, but maybe it was me. My emotions were all over the place and my hair was probably an aurora of anxiety. Avri had gotten used to it, but other kids wouldn't understand. I wasn't sure if it was my intelligence or my abilities that kept me from liking other people, but either way, Avri was the one person who understood. She'd spent a whole year trying to become an Animagus. A whole year of what I would call random tasks to become an animal. It almost sounded weird, but I understood weird. She was ten when she completed the transformation. Her parents were so proud.

"You think they'll let me have a pet snake?" I asked as the train whistle began to blow before departure. "I really want a snake."

"They said on the list only cat, toad, or owl. None of those are a snake," she said factually. "Besides, there's no way I'm riding on your shoulder with a snake," she shivered at the thought of, what she called, slimy-slithery things. Avri hated reptiles of all shapes and sizes. She put up with my love of creatures because she loved me, but I was never allowed to have one. My mum was just as against it as she was.

"I guess you count as my cat," I joked. She stuck her tongue out at me. "An owl sounds practical. I'm not sure how a toad would work out. Can a toad even deliver mail? Wouldn't they just get lost all the time?" I thought out loud. I watched the scenery change as we pulled out of the station, my chin still resting on my fist.

"Yuck, don't get a toad either. Owls are the only ones that make sense," she paused for a moment, "because if you got a cat, we'd just fight all the time." I watched her eyes squint as she imagined the scenario in her mind.

I looked at my hair in the window. It started fading back to brown. I'm not sure what my natural hair colour was or would be, but it was brown when I wasn't freaking out about anything. I slid her feet off of me and stood up to pull the blind over the window in the door. Before I sat back down, I pulled my bag off of the rack and started digging through it.

"What are you doing?" Avri asked from behind me. I didn't say anything. "Hey," she tapped her foot against my leg.

"Just grabbing…," I pulled a jar out of the second pocket of my bag, "this." I shoved it under my arm before she could see it and flopped back down on the bench next to my bag. I set the jar on my lap and pulled up my sleeves before opening it.

"Is that," she started, sitting up cautiously. I nodded. "Oh, don't," she frowned, feeling bad for me.

"I don't want to deal with it today. I've already turned heads on the train and I probably should have done it sooner. There's no way I'm getting sorted like this," I gestured to my hair as two of the strands that fell in front of my face turned black. The jar had a gel that my mum had made for me to hide my hair in the muggle world. She told me not to use it at school, since it was Hogwarts, and everyone was accepted regardless of their differences. I thought otherwise. Maybe it was because I just hadn't been there yet, but my anxiety was going to give me away and I was scared. It was easier to blend in than it was to own your differences.

"Morris," she put her hand over the jar before I could get any of the gel on my fingers, "do you really hate it that much?" She looked at me with sad eyes. Her cat form wasn't the only way she could look pitiful. Her blue-green eyes pierced my soul.

"Just for today?" I asked like I needed her permission to feel comfortable with myself. "Depending on how tonight goes, I'll stop after today, but I really don't want to make a scene during our first day." She frowned, but nodded. She understood my differences, but she also empathised with my desire to avoid attention. I put my glasses off to the side and scooped up some of the gel, proceeding to lather my hair back with it. My mum was fairly good at potions and brilliant at spells, so she mixed some things to make my hair stay a deep brown.

Avri sat back and crossed her arms, looking out the window. "I just don't like your hair slicked back like that," she huffed. "Makes you look snobbish," she added.

"Feel free to fix it," I jokingly leaned my head forward. She sat up quickly and started messing with my hair. I laughed as she parted it on the side, letting a few strands fall in front of my face and keeping the short side slicked backward. She sat back and smiled, completely satisfied. I put on my glasses and looked at my reflection in the window. I saw one strand starting to curl on my cheek, but she slapped my hand when I went to fix it.

As the gel began to dry, a lady came down the corridor with a cart full of sweets. "Anything from the trolley, dears?" she asked after sliding the door open.

My eyes lit up and I looked over at my best mate. She rolled her eyes and smiled. "Absolutely," I pulled a few coins out of my pocket and tried to pick between Bertie Bott's and the liquorice wands. "I'll take…," I struggled, holding one in either hand, "these," I held up the jelly beans and put the wand down reluctantly. She took my coins and I sat back on my bench, still eyeballing her cart.

"Oh, bloody hell, I'll take a liquorice wand," Avri shovelled a handful of coins out of her front pocket and handed them to the lady. "Throw in some jelly slugs, too. And some of these," she picked out two chocolate frogs. The lady smiled and took the coins.

"Is that all for you two?" she asked sweetly, adding our coins to her purse.

We both nodded. "Thank you very much, ma'am," I smiled politely. She nodded with a big smile before closing the door and continuing on. We heard her ask the same question to the next cabin. I looked at Avri as she held up the slugs in disgust. "You don't even like those. Why'd you get them?"

She threw both packages at me. "For you, doofus," was all she said before transforming back into a cat while yawning. She jumped over to my bench and curled up by my hip.

"You didn't have to, but thank you," I pet her head and scratched under her chin. She purred a little before falling asleep.

We played a few games of what I called "bean dare", where we take turns guessing Bertie Bott flavours, which she did not enjoy as much as I did. She opened her frogs. The first one got away, but she caught it on the floor after its one good hop. It gave her Dumbledore and she groaned. The second she ate quickly, and it gave her Morgana, which exited her. Then we watched the clouds and tried to make shapes with them. I saw a mushroom with boxing gloves riding a rocket. We both napped for most of the trip. I woke up a few times, once to a few of the first and second years running down the hall and casting basic spells at each other, but fell back to sleep quickly to the gentle rocking of the train.

"Morris," I opened my eyes to find Avri standing over me. "We're almost there. We need to get changed into our robes," she said. I rubbed my eyes groggily. "Come on, come on, we haven't got all day," she poked my chest with her index finger.

"Alright, alright. I'm up," I said before letting out a loud yawn that made my eyes water. I lifted my glasses with my knuckle and rubbed under my eye with my thumb. I stood and hovered over my bag, which I had left on the bench next to me. My new uniform was in the first pocket. I took my muggle shirts off and changed into my new white button up and grey sweater-vest. I loved sweater-vests and knew we'd get some once we got sorted, but couldn't wait so I bought a plain one, too. I dawned my nice black tie and then my robe before I changed my shoes and trousers.

Avri and I finished at about the same time and sat down with our luggage near the door. We didn't want to be caught in the middle of the crowd nor be the last ones, since we had no idea where we were going. Being some of the first to step off seemed the appropriate thing to do. When the train stopped, Avri transformed and hopped on my shoulder. I grabbed our bags, throwing mine on my other shoulder and carrying hers in my hand, and left for the platform. A large man with a long beard walked along with a large lantern. I mean… this guy was huge. Brilliantly tall.

"First years, come this way!" he shouted in a deep voice. "Come on, first years, don't be shy! Follow me!" he walked passed the carriages designated to the new students and stood in the middle of the platform.

I jumped off the last stair of the train, jostling Avri a bit. She stabbed me in the shoulder again. "Sorry, love," I chuckled. We made our way over to the giant man and waited until a few more first years joined us, some of them giving Avri a sideways glance. Everyone had to stow away their pets, yet here I was with a cat freely around my neck. I could feel her glare at every one of them and it made me smirk.

"Put your bags over here," the large man gestured to the side of the platform near the wall. All the first years did as they were told. Avri had to rebalance herself as I slid my bag off of my arm. "Right then. This way to the boats. Come on," his voice boomed over our heads to the back of the crowd. "Follow me!" he turned and took a large stride forward.

It was a struggle to keep up with him, but I managed to stay on his heels by a strange mix of speed walking and jogging. He led us to a small dock where about eight rowboats sat waiting for us. The giant man told us to fit four to a boat. I took the closest one to the left and was followed by the rude blonde girl from earlier, a pale girl with dark hair, and a tan kid that I swear only came to my shoulder. It was dark, so I couldn't see their features, not that I was paying any attention anyway. "Who's going to row?" I asked. Avri, being a cat, didn't respond, but I felt her tail hit the back of my head softly as a sort of stupid slap. Once everyone was seated, the boats began to move on their own. "Oh, magic… of course," I whispered. Avri's paw tapped my face, telling me that I'd catch on eventually.

We drifted across a huge lake to an enormous cliff with stone walls winding down to the water's surface. At the top of the stone paths stood the largest castle I had ever seen, lit all the way to the top by candlelight. That was it. That was Hogwarts. I could feel excitement bubbling up. Then my nerves kicked in. What if people could see my hair? What if my eyebrows change colour? What if I morph and I don't realise it? Avri stood and walked around to my other shoulder, rubbing under my chin. She was right. I'd be fine. I had my best mate with me. I could face anything.

"Blimy, that's beautiful," I whispered. "Look at that," I pointed to the tallest towers. "I wonder how many candles it takes to light up this big of a building." We stared in awe as the boats floated towards our future home.

"Heads down!" the big man shouted out to us. We all crouched down as we passed under a curtain of ivy and into a small cave system. I looked around with my jaw hanging open. The entrance to the cave was framed by a decadent stone archway.

After drifting a bit further into the cliffside, we docked at a narrow slab of rock and began our assent to the glorious palace above us. "Jynx, I can't believe this is a school," I put my hand on Avri's paw. She put her other paw on my hand to sandwich it between them. We were both super excited… until I saw the stairs… all the stairs… there were at least 10 stories until we got to the top. I hated stairs… "You're telling me that magic makes boats row themselves, but we can't use it to get to the top floor? Have they even heard of elevators?"

At the top of the dreaded staircases, an older woman greeted us. She was clad in green velvet robes and a tall witches hat. She had just enough grey in her hair to call her an elder, but not enough to mean it. She wore a small pair of rounded golden glasses that seemed to balance perfectly at the end of her long nose. When she addressed us, she spoke with regal grace. "Welcome to Hogwarts," she said with a smile. She clapped her hands together. "Now, in a few moments you will pass through these doors and join your classmates, but before you can take your seat, you must be sorted into your houses," she lit up at the excitement of the sorting ceremony. I'd never seen anyone so friendly looking, especially around a bunch of kids. "These houses are Gyffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin," she explained. "Now, while you're here, your house will be like your family." Avri and I glanced at each other. We hadn't thought we'd be split up, but standing there on those steps finally made us realise that it was a possibility. I put my hand on her shoulder and she cozied into the crook of my neck. "Your triumphs will earn you points, and your rule breaking will lose you points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup. The sorting ceremony will begin momentarily," she bowed her head to us and turned, but before walking away, she turned back and waved her wand briefly but elegantly.

"Ow," I groaned as Avri suddenly got heavier. I looked over my shoulder to see her, human, standing behind me with her arm still leaning heavily on me. We both stared at each other, wide-eyed. The other students started whispering. We hung our heads silently. After the graceful woman walked away, we giggled. "That's awesome. She totally knew," I chuckled under my breath. She must be some witch to know just by looking that Avri was an animagus.

"I figured I'd get caught," she laughed. "Just wanted to see how long it would take."

"That was amazing," a hand fell on my other shoulder.

"Yeah, bloody brilliant, I'd say," the same voice was on the other side of Avri. We turned to see the two ginger boys from earlier behind us. They were twins. We saw that now.

She and I shared looks. "Thanks, I guess," we said simultaneously. They laughed at us and we both half-smiled awkwardly. Luckily, the nice older lady came back just in time to free us from social interaction.

"We're ready for you now," she said softly. "Come with me." We followed directly behind her, two at a time, through a wide open courtyard and into a wide hallway. Directly before us were the doors she'd mentioned earlier, the giant ones with the golden accents and beautiful sculpting. They opened by themselves as we passed through into a huge room filled with four incredibly long tables and enough students to fill up the benches on either side of each, all of them staring as we walked through. I blushed at all of the attention, fiddling with my sleeve. Avri jabbed me in the ribs with her elbow, forcing me to look up. The entire ceiling was enchanted to look like the night sky and candles floated above everyone's heads. It seemed like the longest walk of my life, but at least the view was breath-taking. We got to the end of the long stretch and arrived at a small set of stairs, where the older lady halted us and stepped behind an old wooden stool with an even older witch's hat resting on it.

"That's the sorting hat!" I whispered, tapping Avri excitedly on the arm as our fingers interlocked.

"I know, I know, calm down!" she whispered, just as excited as I was.

"Now, before we begin, Professor Dumbledore would like to say a few words," the woman stated, stepping off to the side.

Atop the stairs sat a long golden table with decorations befitting royalty. Candles were lit along the length of the table, floating above silver plates and goblets. An old man, who looked well beyond his years, with the longest beard I'd ever seen stood in the middle of the table. He had half-moon glasses and long white hair that fell behind his back and tangled in the dark, yet decorative robes he wore.

"I have a few start-of-term notices I wish to tell you of," his voice was soft and raspy, but I felt suddenly soothed the moment he began. "The first is for the first years. Please note that the Dark Forest is strictly off-limits to all students. The second is that our caretaker, Mr. Filch," he gestured to a grumpy man in the corner, a cat just as grumpy sitting impatiently at his feet, "has reminded me that certain areas of the castle are still under reconstruction for the next few weeks and are restricted until repairs are completed." There was a silence over the room. "Thank you," he bowed his head before sitting back down in his large gold and maroon chair.

Attentions refocused on the regal woman as she stepped back toward the stool and presented a scroll from her sleeve. "Now, when I call your name, you will come forth, I shall place the sorting hat upon your head, and you will be sorted into your houses." As she spoke, banners fell from the starry ceiling, each endorsing the tables beneath them. Slytherin was to the far right, represented by a silver snake. Then Ravenclaw, above whom hung a blue flag sporting a golden eagle. Hufflepuff was yellow and presented a badger, and Gryffindor sat to the far left with a red and gold lion proudly flying over their heads. "Let's begin," she started. "Raymond Abington," she called alphabetically by last name. He was sorted into Hufflepuff. Caroline Allister was a Ravenclaw. "Rachel Andrulli," she called and a small girl with dark hair apologised to everyone as she nudged her way through the crowd. She sat on the stool, the hat was placed on her head, and it took longer than the other two had.

"I see, another one, hmm?" said the hat. "That's very interesting. I could put you… but no, it's not right. No, not that one either…" She nervously chewed on her lip as the had contemplated her fate. "Perhaps… Yes… Gryffindor!" he shouted. It echoed through the room and the Gryffindor table cheered. The lady took the hat off of her head and the girl bounced away to her table with a large grin. I squeezed Avri's hand, nervous that we wouldn't both be Ravenclaw.

"Avri Austin," she called. I let go of her hand, but only after she started walking.

She sat on the stool. The hat was placed on her head. It took only a second for the hat to scream, "Ravenclaw!" across the room. The hat was taken off and she grinned eagerly at me before moving off towards the table, where I watched her get greeted by Caroline and the second years. I bit my cheek. My heart was hammering in my chest.

"I have to be Ravenclaw," I repeated to myself. I didn't even notice everyone else had gone before me. The only ones left were left were me, the two ginger boys, a small dark-skinned boy, and a shy blonde in the back who was hiding behind a peppy looking girl with a really long braid.

"James Morris," she called. I snapped myself out of my thoughts and stumbled my way up to the stool. I sat down, fidgeting with my sleeves. I chewed my cheek intensely.

"Interesting, I know just what to do with you," the hat said. "Slytherin!"

That was it. In less than ten seconds, my fate was decided. My heart stopped. I stumbled off the stool and over to my new house table, sharing a sad stare with my best mate. The table cheered as they accepted their new addition. Unlike the Gryffindor cheers, which were mostly claps and whistles, the Slytherin cheer involved a lot of chanting, fist pumping, and banging on the table. Really, it was my kind of attitude, but…

I was pat on the back by two of the other Slytherins. One was a first year, a tall tan kid with long black hair, and the other a second year who was short and sported a sheep's worth of dark curly hair. I didn't care. I just wanted to be with Avri. We'd never really been separated before. I mean, sure, family vacations and travels, but this was going to be for seven years. Could we eat together? Were we even allowed to see each other? Would we have classes together?

The ceremony carried on like that for me until the ringing of a glass pierced my ears. "Attention, please," the kind lady in green spoke loudly, but still softly.

The older man, Professor Dumbledore, stood once again. He extended his arms with a smile. "Let the feast begin," as he spoke the tables suddenly became full of food. There were silver platters and plates, glasses and utensils. Everything from roasted turkeys to fruit platters. The table was full.

My eyes lit up and it was the first time since we got off the train that I hadn't been nervous. If there was one thing I was good at, it was putting away food. I filled the plate in front of me with a variety of meats and cheeses, bread rolls, and veggies. I filled my glass with punch and dug in. The woolly guy next to me leaned over and made a comment about how much I was eating. I glared at him. No-one was going to bother me and _my_ food. He made a face down at me and backed off. I learned later that my eyes had changed from brown to orange and that's what freaked him out, but at the time I thought it was my sheer force of will that scared him off.

I glanced up to see Avri staring at me, clearly not having a good time. She picked at her food, sliding it around her plate and taking very few bites. I furrowed my eyebrows at her frown. We both wanted her to sneak over to my table, but whatever spell the Professor lady had put on her kept her from transforming. We had no idea how long it would last.

Just then she screamed and latched onto the person next to her. I stood up to see over the table. A ghost head had come up through the platter in front of her. I was staring so hard at what was going on that I didn't notice the eyes on me from my own table. She looked at me, distressed for a moment, then calmed down. She was terrible with jump scares, but a ghost was a whole new problem. Ghosts began flooding in through the windows. The senior students laughed as the first years completely freaked out. A pirate looking guy flew over the Slytherin table, slashing at our food with his sword. I sat down and leaned back. This school was crazy.

After dinner, the first years were divided by house to follow the Prefects, or the teacher's pets as I understood it. They were the senior advisors for the first years. We walked through the halls and over to what would turn out to be my absolute least favourite room. The stairwell from hell. Every common room was accessible through this chamber. The stairs towered above me, the grandest staircase I'd ever seen. I hated it already. One of our Prefects advised us that the higher you go, the more often the stairs change direction, pretend not to be there, and add false steps. "Are you kidding me?" I thought. "Why? Why is that a thing? Who thought of making the stairs with a cruddy personality?!"

Before the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws went up towards the top, our groups mixed for a short while and I took the opportunity to grab Avri's hand. We didn't say anything. Our groups split up as the Ravenclaws turned to begin their ascent along the tower of steps towards their common room and the Slytherins continued downward… and down we went. I lost count of how many levels we dropped. We passed in front of a plain wall and stopped. I looked around, wondering where we were going.

"Nos Magnam," the Prefect spoke to, seemingly, no-one. Suddenly, a handwritten, green text appeared on the wall. The Prefect moved over to that section of wall and pushed it in, creating a doorway.

"Wow," I whispered under my breath. We followed him into a large room. The first thing I noticed was the fireplace directly across from us. It was huge, made of stones and outlined in dark wood. The whole room was bathed in green. The black couches sat on green rugs with green accent pillows, the banners on the stone walls were green, and the floor to ceiling windows in their stone arches were green… but not from the glass. I looked closer and saw a few fish swim passed. We were underwater. The whole common room was underwater. "Wow," I said a bit louder, getting excited. There were candles everywhere along the walls and a large, yet not flashy, chandelier hung over the centre of the room. By the walls, there were a few dark wooden desks, chess tables, and bookcases that towered over the room. "I would need a ladder just to get to the middle of those shelves," I thought. Around the couches were small, round tables and chairs that looked hand carved with rustic designs, almost like café seating. The room was almost nautical.

"Welcome to the Slytherin Dungeon," the Prefect said, arms wide and proud. "As you can see, this is the main room. Yes, we are underwater, so don't ask. Sometimes we see the Giant Squid pass by and that's a sight," he smirked, his long face almost contorting under his pointy Prefect hat. "The boy's rooms are that way," he swung his arm enthusiastically to the far-right corner where an archway lead to a short hallway, "and the girl's rooms are that way," his other arm swung to point towards the closer right hand corner. "Any questions?" he straightened up and crossed his arms." I raised my hand. "Yes, generic first year number 3?"

I caught myself about to laugh, but reined myself in at the last minute. "How are rooms assigned? Do we just pick or are we paired up?"

He looked over our heads to count how many of us there were. There were 9 of us, three girls and six boys. "The girls will be in one room, and three and three for you lot. Your choice," he shrugged. "Any more questions?" he looked at us again. A skinny kid behind me raised his hand. "No? Great!" the Prefect clapped his hands together before dismissing us to find our rooms. "Oh, and your luggage is already here," he added. The small boy let out a sigh of relief, his question answered.

The bags had been spread out across the rooms. The girls were excited to room together, not that they had a choice, and the boys put three to a room. The tan boy and I decided to room together, leaving the skinny brunette kid, the large scary guy, an average joe looking guy that seemed bored by the whole affair, and the tall one that kept rolling his eyes at everything to still be sorted.

"Hi, I'm Gabe," my new roommate extended his hand to me with a goofy smile. I forced a smile of my own and took his hand.

"James. Pleasure," I shook his hand and pulled mine back quickly before finding where my luggage was. It was the second room down the hall. I had the bed in the back-left corner already and decided to keep it that way. There was a square stone fire pit with a rail around it in the middle of the room that stood about shoulder height to me and chest height to Gabe. The window in the room was framed by black curtains that stood out from the limestone wall. The beds were dark-wood twins, dressed in black sheets and a green, crested comforter that matched the mossy green curtains hanging from the canopy. Next to the beds stood small matching desks with green shaded table lamps. "This place is strangely comfortable for being so damp looking," I stated as I inspected my corner of the room. Gabe took the bed in the front righthand corner near the door. All four beds looked exactly the same. I found my bag under the bed and pulled it out to begin unloading the list of things I was supposed to bring. At the top of my backpack, I found that they'd added a few new uniform items: a necktie, a sweater, sweater-vest, and a robe with a snake crest. I unpacked my clothes and put them in the bottom drawer of the desk, less-likely to be used at the bottom, then began unpacking the homey things: a picture of my parents and brothers, one of whom would be starting the next year; a rubric's cube; a bear Avri had given me a few years prior; a notepad and pencil; and a quill set my mother had bought me. I did like using quills, but pencils worked just as well and were erasable. I set the bear on the bed side of the lamp and adjusted the cube, notepad, and quill set so they each had approximately one inch of room on either side. The photo was put in my top drawer. It was the only thing in there for now, centred and facing the handle. I watched as my mum and dad laughed at my brothers as they wrestled each other for a piece of chicken. It was a silly photo, but it meant a lot to me.

"I'm bunkin' with you lot," the average Joe kid threw his trunk on the floor and flopped onto the other bed in the front corner. He rolled over and seemed to fall asleep immediately…

"Long day ahead of us tomorrow, Jimmy," Gabe smiled as he sat on his bed. "We'd better turn in for the night." I scoffed at him calling me Jimmy as he nudged the door closed with his foot. I would have taken Jay or something, but not Jimmy.

"Night, then, _Gabby_ ," I closed the drawer, put my glasses on the desk, and pulled my sheets back. He cocked his head with a frustrated face then shrugged and did the same. I curled up and awaited the next day.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 - The First Day of School

The next morning, we were woken up by the Prefects at, what I assume was around, six or six-thirty. They told us that we had an hour before breakfast and right after we'd be off to classes. The first class we had today was transfiguration. I pulled my books out of my bag and set them on my neatly made bed. I grabbed my toiletries and robes for the day then ran off to the bathroom on the other side of the hallway. The boys and girls had one group bathroom for each side. The boy's, as I can't speak for the girls, had five sinks with a large mirror going from wall to wall, three toilets, and five showers. Two of the showers were free when I entered, so I took the one closest to the far wall. My hair was crusted from the gel, so that was priority number one.

After I got cleaned up, I worked my way back up all of the stairs to get to the Great Hall. The tables were still rather bare when I got there. I was walking towards the front end of my house table when a cat jumped on my shoulder.

"Avri!" I pulled her down from my arm and hugged her. She hissed and crawled back up around my neck, pawing me in the back of the head. "Can we eat together? Is that allowed?" I sat on the Slytherin bench facing the Ravenclaw table. She sat in my lap and curled up. One of the Prefects for Hufflepuff walked by so I figured I'd ask her. She said we could for breakfast and lunch but not dinner because of the house points announcements. I smiled down at Avri. "Hear that? Now we just need to decide which table to sit at," I smiled and pet her head. She hopped off of my lap to decide. She looked around, looking like an adorable kitty, and decided that where we were sitting was fine. I nodded, but switched to the other side of the bench so I was near the wall. She changed back into her human form and sat across from me.

As the others came filing in, we talked about what had happened the previous night, how there were too many stairs, the layouts of the common rooms, and she filled me in on what happened during dinner. She laughed uncontrollably, "And this one girl over at the other table said, 'where are the vegan dishes' and I was like 'That's why you're in Hufflepuff!'"

I chuckled. "That's a very _me_ thing to say," I pointed out as food suddenly appeared on the table. It wasn't as grand as dinner, but there were jams, toast, butter, milk, and a few rolls. "Oh, yes, what I've been waiting for," I licked my lips and began to fill my plate.

"Well, I have been around you for almost eight years now," she said. "You're bound to have some kind of influence," she smiled, making me smile, as she threw a roll on her plate and finickily picked out fruit from the platter to her left.

"Mind if I sit here?" the Slytherin boy that rolls his eyes too much towered over us. He was taller than both of us, dark-skinned, and lanky. We both shrugged, and he sat down, crossing his arms on the table.

I looked around, noticing that our side of the table was the only side lacking people. The other tables were evenly dispersed with friend groups huddled near each other, but ours had a decent stretch between the rest of the Slytherins and the three of us. "Why is everyone over there?" I asked, not really caring, but thinking it was strange.

"You forgot your gel this morning," she said, shoving a piece of her roll in her mouth.

I ran a hand through my hair nervously, noticing it slid through a bit too easily. "Oh, no," I muttered, pulling a strand in front of my face to see my hair change from blue to green. "I should go," I began freaking out and stood up after removing the serviette from my lap.

"Morris! Sit your butt back down," Avri grabbed my hand from across the table. "You will sit, you will eat, and you will calm down," she ordered. I sat, but I didn't calm down.

"Wait, you must be one of those magi-things, right?" the kid next to us asked with an I-could-care-less tone.

"Metamorphmagi," Avri corrected him, glaring him down with her arm still pinned on me from across the table. I nodded.

"Do you not like your abilities or something?" he asked bluntly, resting his head on his hand like it was too heavy for his skinny body.

Different shades of green paraded through my hair. "It's not like that," I started, staring down at my plate as my eggs starting to run into my bread. "It's just that I get treated differently because of it."

"Why?" he asked blankly.

"Because it's weird, I guess," I answered, looking up at him.

"Why?" he asked again, still not animating his emotions in any way.

"I don't know," I snapped, frustrated by his lameness.

"Oh, that's cool," he sat up and his voice cracked with fascination as the green turned orange for a split second. I blushed and tried to force it back to brown, but it only flickered before staying adamantly green. "Stop trying to change it. It looks cool," he said, staring at my hair. He leaned back on his hand, facing me still. "I'm Matthew, by the way," he was back to his monotone self.

"Hi," I said, still flustered.

"His name is James. Mine's Avri," she spoke for me, withdrawing her hand to finish her food.

"Nice to meet you," he started filling up his plate with toast. Nothing but toast.

I smiled as I watched him spread his jam and cram his face one bite at a time. "Do you eat like that all the time?" He nodded while biting into his fourth piece. "How are you so skinny?" I asked.

"There's something about wizarding families and stairs," he said after swallowing his mouthful. There was something off about his voice. It was rather deep for our age, but there was something else.

"I knew I wasn't the only one that thought that!" I glanced at Avri, who was partially choking on her roll from laughing. "And why do they move? It's so annoying!"

Avri's hand connected with the table with a loud pop. When she swallowed her food, she said, "No! What's really annoying is the Ravenclaw password!" We both stared at her blankly. We were forbidden to give away the passwords. "It's not a real password, so calm down." She put her roll down and stared into my soul with those eyes of hers. "It's a riddle!" she whispered. "Any riddle! It changes! All the time!" I could see the irritation in her eyes and laughed. "It's not funny! It's frustrating! What if my answer isn't the one he's looking for?" I couldn't stop myself from laughing harder. I knew it would drive me crazy, too.

"And they say _Slytherins_ are creative," Matthew chimed in.

"It's a pretty _creative_ form of torture," she hissed. We both laughed, but Avri didn't find it funny. She glared at me until I tried to stop, alas I failed miserably and nearly choked myself. _That_ got her to smile.

"You're American!" I snapped to myself and pointed at him, satisfied with myself.

He looked cynically towards me. "Nothing gets past you, does it?"

I stuck my tongue out with a playful sneer. I had a habit of saying things as they popped into my mind, and I'll admit that my parents weren't at the top of their game when teaching me social cues. "Whatever, I was just trying to figure out why you're so strange. Now it all makes sense," I said bluntly, shoving a forkful of egg into my mouth. Avri rolled her eyes with a smirk.

We were enjoying ourselves so much that time flew by. We only got up when we were about to be late to class. When we stood to leave, Avri jumped on my shoulder, as per usual.

"Wait, what?" Matthew stared at her and squinted as if he'd seen it wrong.

"Oh, yeah, she's a cat," I pointed at her. She nodded before cosying up to my neck.

"What?" he repeated. I smiled and walked passed him, feeling superior for some reason.

All of the first years had Transfiguration together, since there were so few of us this year. Only about thirty kids total. All of the houses were stuck in the same small classroom. The Gryffindors had claimed the entire left-hand side of the class, the Ravenclaws were front and centre, the Hufflepuffs were in the front right, and the Slytherins took up the back of the right and middle rows. I sat close to the Ravenclaws, so I could be right behind Avri, and Matthew sat to my right. We pulled out our books and quills and waited patiently for the Professor to join us. Five minutes of mindless chatter went by before Avri raised her hand, which silenced the room. No-one knew who she was waiting for and the whispers started.

Finally, she said, "Are you waiting for us to notice you, Professor?" Everyone looked around, bewildered. I peeked over her head and spotted the cat on the floor by the desk.

"Oh, I see," I whispered before sitting back down.

The cat took two steps forward before becoming the nice older woman that had shown us into the Great Hall the night before. The class was in awe. "Very astute, Ms. Austin," she adjusted her narrow glasses. Her hair was pulled back into a tight ball on the back of her head. She looked gentler without her hat casting such a dark shadow over her eyes. "Forgive me for not introducing myself last night upon your arrival. For those of you who were distracted during the feast, I am Professor Minerva McGonagall and I am the head of the Gryffindor house, as well as your Transfigurations professor," she walked around the room accessing her students. She stopped close to Avri and stared between the two of us for a long while before saying, "I would like to speak with both of you before the end of class," in the nicest yet scariest voice I'd ever heard, reminding me quite a bit of my gran.

The first class was merely an introduction to the course. She had us write a page on what we thought the class would entail and any prior knowledge we had of the skill. She reprimanded the ginger twins twice with a warning that the third time would be the last. The rest of the lesson passed silently. Near the end, the rest of the students began to finish up their papers and hand them in, but Avri and I were called out to the hallway before we could hand in ours. It wasn't anything bad, thank goodness. She told us that with the skills that we had, we had to be careful about how and when we used them. With great power comes great responsibility and all that. She _was_ impressed that Avri had learned the Animagi skill so early in life.

Before we went back into the classroom to get our belongings, she stopped me to tell me that my talents were nothing to be ashamed of. I blushed, and my hair went green, making me want to cover it, but she assured me that everything was alright with a smile, just as my gran always did.

As we wondered back into the classroom, the other students were leaving. We got a few nasty stares in our direction, but most of them kept their heads down.

"Oh, I'm sorry," a really short Gryffindor girl said after running into Avri. "I'm a clutz," she laughed nervously, picking up her quill from the floor.

"Avri," I nudged her when I noticed she wasn't moving. I turned to the girl, who was raising her eyebrow. "Sorry about her. She's weird," I laughed then my eyes caught hers. I froze. She was adorable. Her shoulder length brown hair framed her pale cheeks, falling slightly over one eye. She smiled sincerely, and it was the warmest smile I'd ever seen.

"Um, it was nice meeting you two," she gave a little wave and left us staring behind her. I could have sworn she winked at me.

"Ah! Avri! Class, let's go," I said, snapping out of it and pushing her to her desk to pick up her things.

She shook her head and lightly slapped herself on the cheek. "Right," she agreed and picked up her books, her eyes lingering on the doorway as the brunette girl skipped out of the room and around the corner.

We rushed off down the hall towards the next class; potions. I was so very excited to start Potions class. I loved to cook and making potions wasn't far off. My mum was brilliant at potions, so I'd watched her at home. Avri loved blowing things up and making weird concoctions, but she wasn't half bad at making actual potions. I mean, she's an Animagus; she had to be good at potions.

We sat down in the only seats available… the second row. It could have been worse. It could have been the front row, where all eyes would be on us, but luckily the overachievers already took their places. The second row was still noticeable, but not as bad as first row. I also made a note that the second row and the last row had the majority of the hooligans.

We had just pulled out our text books and tried to mimic what everyone else was doing when the door slammed open. The Potions Professor was my head of house. He was a bit scary, but I kind of liked the vibe he gave off.

"There will be no foolish wand waving," he started, barely through the door, "or silly incantations in this class, so put your wands away." He strode to the front of the classroom, fingers interlocking gracefully, yet strictly, in front of his chest. His long black robes dragged the ground behind him and his cuffs came down well over his fingers. "I don't expect many of you to appreciate the subtlety of potion making, as it is an exact art, except for those… select few," he paused and looked at a few students in the room, "who possess the… predisposition." He walked across the floor, fixing his robe as it dragged beneath his feet. It was a very majestic robe, but I could see its impracticality. "I can teach you how to bewitch the mind, ensnare the senses," he stared dramatically at all of us, "bottle fame, brew glory, and even put a stopper in death." The class was silent. We may have been kids, but we understood the greatness of his words… or at least I did… "Can anyone tell me what I would get by mixing powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

I looked around, seeing if anyone put their hand up. I raised mine slowly when no-one else did. He looked over me and chose the one of the stupid ginger twins, both of whom were cracking jokes in the back of the classroom. I frowned and looked towards Avri, who I noticed was also putting her arm down in defeat.

"Neither of you knows?" he added quickly, seeing that they clearly weren't paying attention. "No, some of you have come to Hogwarts in possession of abilities so _formidable_ that you're confident enough to _not pay attention_ ," he huffed sarcastically. I smirked. I was really going to like this professor. "So, I ask this: where would you look if I asked you to find me a bezoar?" We both knew he wasn't talking to anyone else but the twins at this point, so we didn't bother raising our hands, but the temptation remained. The twins stared blankly back at him, kicking each other in order to keep a straight face. "What is the difference between monkshood and wolfbane?" he asked another question they couldn't answer. "Pity. It's all well and good to have a nice laugh, but humour will not get you far in life, so I suggest you start learning to take things seriously," he leaned on his podium. The twins stared at him in shock, like they'd never been told to calm down before. "For the information of the class, Asphodel and Wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A Bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As for Monkshood and Wolfbane, they are the same plant, which goes by the name of Aconite," he looked around the classroom. "Well, why aren't you all copying this down? I don't make a habit of repeating myself."

We snatched up our quills and scribbled down everything he said for the rest of class. He staggered his words with an eloquent suspense, so it really wasn't hard to keep up. Spelling was a bit of an issue, but at least I had time to draw pictures on the sides of my papers, good for both note taking and an artistic outlet. Avri and I smiled at each other through the whole class, excited for what was to come.

The next order of business was lunch. We were excited to eat together again. We sat in the same spot as breakfast, still sectioned off, but less so because of how many more students there were for lunch than breakfast. As it turned out, the upperclassmen didn't have the requirement to attend breakfast, as they had different class schedules. The tables were filled with small sandwiches, potatoes, pumpkins, sweet rolls, and fruit dishes. We dug in, expecting our lunch to be peaceful, but halfway through a barrage of owls flew through the windows and began dive bombing and throwing packages at student's heads.

"Oh, Merlin!" I shouted as Matthew's box nearly hit me in the face. "Watch it!" I yelled at the rusty brown owl that flew off as fast as it had come in. Avri laughed at me, but stopped when my mother's grey owl, Gemma, dropped a few letters for me by my hand and perched on the table. "Hi, Gemma," I rubbed just above her nose. She hooted at me and stared at my plate. I picked a piece of bread and held it in my hand. I shooed her off after she picked up the treat. "Go on, then." She flew with grace through the chandeliers and out of the highest window.

"It's so weird that you have her trained," Avri laughed.

"It's better than all these buffoons," I gestured to the scattered mess of owls littering the ceiling before opening my first letter. It was from my little brother. It had a picture of him at his birthday party, which I had missed to get on the train. The second was from my parents, wishing me luck in my endeavours. The third was from my grandmother, telling me how proud she was that I made it into the easiest school to get into. All you really had to do was be a bit magical and they let you in. It didn't take much.

"Anything good?" Avri asked from across the table. I showed her Roscoe's picture. She smiled sympathetically at me, knowing I would have loved to have been there.

"What about you? Where's Artimus?" I asked. Just as his name left my throat, the Austin owl came soring down and landed directly on Avri's head. He was a horned owl with a tall stature, making him look like a crown on Avri's short blonde hair.

"Get off of me, you stupid bird!" she swatted at him, but he didn't move. She hissed. He dropped her letter next to her plate and proceeded to prune his wing. Avri transformed, freaking Artimus out for only a few seconds before he landed casually on the table. Her hackles went up as her back arched. She let out a long angry hiss, but he was less than phased. He cocked his head at her, not feeling the least bit threatened by the tiny cat. She attacked his talon the way a puppy would attack a new toy, a good swing that never connected. Matthew and I erupted into laughter.

"Go on, Artimus," I waved him off. He flew up and out of the Great Hall's window. Avri paced back and forth on the bench, whining and glaring at me. "I can't help it! It's funny!" I tried to say through tears. She let out a few more angry meows. "Change back. You need to eat," I said more seriously, trying to keep a straight face.

"I can eat in cat form," she said, sitting properly on her side of the table, as a human. "I'm not even hungry anyway," she bit into her sweet roll with a huff.

"What did you get," I glanced over at the letter by her plate, trying to identify the handwriting.

She opened it, skimmed it quickly, then folded it back up and threw it on the table. "Dad's being weird," she shook her head then returned to her food. I assumed she meant he'd sent her a letter about how proud he was of her and how upset he was about missing the train. He may have been a rough and tough Auror, but he was a big softy.

"I guess that means you aren't writing them back?" I asked. She shook her head again. I sighed. It looked like I'd have to write them back for her. I was replying to my letters that night anyway, so it's not like it would be a hassle. I'd been around her so long that I could mimic her personality and it only took a bit of practice to get her handwriting down.

I stopped eating when I saw a girl entre the Hall, grabbing my attention. Her hair was hot pink and her robes were traced in yellow around the cuffs and hood. She sped over to her group of friends, hugging them immediately. She was an older girl. Maybe a fourth or fifth year? My eyes widened as I saw her hair change from pink to orange for a split second when her friends teased her. I blinked a few times, thinking I must have been seeing things.

"What are you gawking at?" Avri turned and immediately saw her. It wasn't like she was hard to miss. She spun back around quickly. "Is she?"

"I think so," I said as I stared.

"I don't know if you can tell, but your hair is red," Matthew said between bites of his sandwich. I pulled a strand down in front of my face as it changed from red to green. I was starting to hate green because of how often it showed up… "So, is she one of you?" he looked down at me, "A metamorphma-thing?"

"Metamorphmagus," Avri corrected him in an instant. I nodded. She turned back towards me and said, "Go talk to her," while her eyes burned holes in my skull. I shook my head vigorously. "Why not?" she demanded.

"Well, she's older so she probably doesn't want some kid coming over there and bugging her," I thought up at least three excuses. Of course I wanted to talk to her. I wanted to ask her about her ability. I'd never met anyone else like me before. "What if she doesn't notice me?" I asked without thinking.

"That's likely," she said sarcastically. "With all the emotion you're putting off, you'd just have to get somewhere near her field of vision and I'm positive she'd notice you."

I looked down at my watch, which was apparently strange to have at this school, and said with nervous enthusiasm, "Oh, would you look at the time. We'd better be getting to class soon. Don't want to miss that lesson we're having." I stood quickly, gathering my things and putting our letters into my robe pocket.

"Wait!" Avri yelled after me as I started towards the door, shoving the last of her roll into her mouth.

I tried to stay near the walls, so I wouldn't be seen. Avri pawed at my ankle when she caught up to me. I lowered my hand, so she could crawl up on my shoulder. She didn't like jumping after eating. I kept my head low and ducked passed the large doors and into the hallway. Avri shook her head. "Shut up! I know!" I blushed and walked hastily towards the field for our flying lesson.

Avri jumped off and landed gracefully on the floor when we reached the archway at the end of the corridor. She changed back before any of the teachers could see her, since she'd been scolded a few times already. "You're lucky we're about to fly, because I have a few words for you," she said, straightening her robes.

"Yeah, yeah," I muttered, waiting for her before I turned the corner.

She pushed me towards the grass. "Come on, go," she said impatiently. We walked out to the field and sat down next to a few other students that were waiting for the professor to arrive.

The students flooded the field, one after the other. Matthew stood next to me silently, crossing his arms like the whole thing was overrated. Avri and I stood up as the rest of the first years joined us. The Gryffindor girl we'd run into during Transfiguration was directly across from us with the other Gryffindor girls, giggling at the twins as they messed around next to them. I wasn't sure if they wanted attention or if they were just loony. Avri and I rolled our eyes at the same time. I would have said Matthew did, too, but he rolled his eyes at everything, so I wasn't even sure if we were looking at the same thing.

Several brooms were lined up in the grass in two rows, facing each other. The first years stood in a cluster by the row closest to the wall until the professor walked in between the two lines.

"Good afternoon, class," she said, her voice booming over us, filled with excitement. "I am Rolanda Hooch and I am your flying instructor," she stated, her golden eyes piercing each one of us. "You may call me Madam Hooch." Her hair was short, grey, and wild like she'd just finished doing corkscrews on her own broom. She ushered for us to get in line with the school's brooms. Avri and I stood next to each other, in between the rest of our two houses, on the side closest to the wall of the castle. Gryffindor and Hufflepuff had their backs to the field.

"Good afternoon, Madam Hooch," we all greeted, trying to figure out where to stand.

She stood tall at the end of the rows. "Welcome to your first flying lesson," she smiled. "Well, what are you waiting for? Everyone step up to the left side of your brooms," she put her hands on her hips. We did as we were told, hastily taking a step forward at her commanding tone. "Stick your right hand over the broom and say "up"," she demonstrated.

"Up," I said, barely above a whisper. The broom came straight to me. I'd flown before, so it wasn't difficult. I rather loved flying. There was something so freeing about it. Avri liked riding with her parents because it helped her clear her head. I glanced over at her, already holding her broom confidently as a few of the first years struggled to perform. Matthew's came to him after the second try. His first attempt was lazy and barely moved it, but the second held irritation, like he might kick it if it didn't mind. The broom launched into his hand, making him smirk. "Say it with feeling," Madam Hooch instructed. Most of the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws had theirs ready to go, but a few of the Slytherins struggled, screaming at the twitching sticks on the ground. The Gryffindors seemed capable enough after the first few tries, but the small brunette girl had to say "please" for her broom to respond. My lips twitched, trying not to laugh. The twins successfully hit themselves in the face the first time before they got it. That I did laugh at.

Once everyone had successfully collected their brooms, Madam Hooch began to pace through the aisle. "Now, once you've got hold of your broom, I want you to mount it," she spoke slowly, but sternly, making sure everyone heard her, "and grip it tight. I don't need any of you falling off." She raised her hand, showing off a silver whistle. "When I blow my whistle, I want each of you to kick off from the ground, hard. Keep your broom steady, hover for a moment, lean forward slightly, and touch back down." She eyed everyone to make sure they were paying attention. We all mounted our brooms. I held mine loosely, since I already knew my broom was delicate. If I wanted it to be kind to me, I had to be kind to it. Brooms were stubborn things. "On my whistle," she said. "Three, two," she blew the whistle, piercing my ears with an unfortunate sound. Avri and I kicked off, levitated for a moment, and came back down, just as she told us to. Matthew kicked off rather hard and almost lost his balance, but regained composure like nothing had happened.

"Woah!" I heard a shout as Gabe kicked off way too hard with one foot and fell off. A Ravenclaw girl struggled, inching forwards on accident before landing farther away than where she'd started. The Hufflepuffs were shaky, but good.

"Well, look at that," the Gryffindor girl said, getting my attention. She was beaming as she hovered over everyone's heads. She looked graceful with the clouds behind her and her robes rippling in the wind.

"Well done, now come back down, Ms. Andruli," Madam Hooch addressed her by name. She nodded and began her decent back to the grass, filled with glee.

"Show off," Avri muttered.

I snickered at her. "You can fly better than that. What are you talking about?" I asked.

"Nothing," she said, looking towards the tower at the far end of the field. I raised an eyebrow at her.

The rest of the lesson was repeating the same few steps over and over until the whole class had it under control. Avri and I were restless, doing something we were already proficient at. It wasn't at all what we expected. Most of the others had their take-off's and landings under control by the end of the class, but there were still a few stragglers, one of which being a Hufflepuff with, what seemed to me like no talent.

The next class was Charms with Professor Flitwick. He was a very short man, shorter than most of the first years, with a white beard hanging down to his knees. He stood on a pile of books in the centre of the far wall (in front of a _huge_ window) to better observe the classroom. It was great that the Slytherins and Ravenclaws seemed to always be on the same side of the room. Avri and I bridged the gap by sitting next to each other every time. We had large white feathers in front of us on the desk. I had to try quite hard to not bother Avri with it, since I knew she'd slap me and make a scene, but boy oh boy was it tempting. We sat at the back of the risers against the wall. It was comfortably darker back there, but I thought it would be rather annoying to have everyone turn to stare at us like we had at the twins during Potions if we were to screw around.

"Great! Now that we've got that out of the way, let us begin with a simple flick of the wrist," Professor Flitwick finished introducing the course. "The first spell you are going to learn is used for levitation!" he said. I couldn't tell if his excitement was fake, but mine wasn't. I looked over at my best mate, who was already smiling back at me. We were probably going to use this for everything. "The movement for this is called the Swish and Flick," he demonstrated by dragging his wand in a half-moon shape then tapping the air swiftly like he was dotting an _I_.

Avri and I withdrew our wands from our robes and mimicked his movements. My slender, 8 1/2-inch ebony moved gracefully as an extension of my hand. I loved my wand. It was a fragile looking thing with trace amounts of silver inlayed in the handle. It slipped through the air like a tiny sparrow gliding through the clouds. Avri's wand was a 13-inch pale poplar that almost looked too big for her hands at our age. Its intricate handle was bound on the edges by thin ribbons of brown leather. Unlike my straight wand, hers curved with the shape of her hand and extended out with a natural wave, like she'd picked it straight from the branch of the tree.

"Good! Now you must _enunciate_! Wingardium Leviosa," he said, flicking his wand toward the feather placed at his feet. "Off you go then," he waved his hands wildly, telling us to try it out.

" _Wingardium Leviosa_ ," half the class chanted. The other half said, "Wengordian Liviosah," or something and looked like they were about to hurt themselves either in frustration or by accident.

I swished my wand like how we'd practiced and spoke softly, " _Wingardium Leviosa_." My feather hovered above the desk by only a few inches. I smiled and looked towards my best friend confidently.

She struggled to say it for a minute, but soon got it. " _Wingardium Leviosa_ ," she spoke, squinting at the feather as she concentrated. It twitched under her wand. She squinted harder, like she wanted to set it ablaze simply by glaring at it, and the feather flew out from under her gaze like a snitch and landed across the room. We both stared, wide-eyed, at the feather on the floor, then the desk where it had been merely seconds before, then at the wand in her hand.

"What was that?" I asked, still holding my feather a few inches from the desktop.

"I- I don't know," she frowned. "I did everything right, right?" she looked at me, almost more confused than I was.

"I think you did," I chuckled, "but I think you flicked too hard."

She scoffed at me. "Like you're any better!" she furrowed her eyebrows at me. It only took her a second after that to realise I'd been holding my feather in the air the whole time. She sighed, defeated.

"Oh, don't look so down," I tried to stop laughing, but it really was hilarious. I directed my feather towards her face and tickled her nose. She swatted at it and glared at me. I smiled back at her, unyielding, until both of us laughed.

Dinner in the Great Hall was a bit lonely without Avri, since we couldn't sit together, but we didn't make a big deal out of it since we'd spent practically the whole day together. We shared a smile and a few stares, but Matthew kept me in a conversation and it looked as if Avri had made a few acquaintances herself.

"I don't like either of them," Matthew complained about his roommates. "Adrian smells. I swear on my life he doesn't shower," he spoke about the large scary guy that I refused to room with. I nodded in agreement. "Tim is weird," he said. "Doesn't say anything. He just stared at me until I fell asleep," he shivered.

"We've got an extra bed. You're welcome to move in and save me from _Gabby_ ," I spat his new nickname and pointed my thumb to the tan guy a few students down from me. "He called me Jimmy," I wrinkled my nose up at the name. I was named after my grandfather, who went by Jim, but I never developed a taste for it.

"Oh, could I?" he sighed. "That would be a huge relief." I nodded.

Soon after, we were back in our common rooms. Matthew and I played some checkers in the lounge after he moved his things to the new room. I won, of course, since I am a checkers master, but the second game tied in a way that I'd never seen before. It was an exact mirror image on either side of the board. Neither of us could move anywhere. It was a solid stalemate.

"You just had to move, didn't you?" the prudish guy that slept in the front corner of our room spat towards Matthew. "Now _I_ have to move," he hissed and stomped off down the hallway.

"What was that about?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

Matthew rolled his eyes. "Don't ask me."

Gabe was already asleep when we got into the room. He'd had a rough day of failing, from falling off of his broom to having his dinner nabbed consistently by the girl that sat across from him at the table. I almost felt bad for him.

I sat down on my bed, pulling my bag out from underneath and searching through it for my night clothes. I pulled out many things my mother had packed for me, including extra blankets, before I found them.

"Holy cow, how much crap do you have in there?" Matthew asked, watching me the whole time from his new corner of the room.

I let out a long sigh. "Everything," I mumbled. "My mother used an extension charm so I wouldn't have to carry so much, but then she overpacked my bag with everything I probably won't even need," I said, pulling out cold medicine as an example before putting everything I'd pulled out back in.

"What's that?" he asked.

"Benylin," I said bluntly.

"And what's that?" he asked again. I stared up at him for a while before remembering, yet again, that pure-blood families didn't have to deal with a lot of the things muggles did.

"It's cold medicine. You take it when you have a runny nose and sore throat to make you feel better," I explained. "It's like pepper-up, but it doesn't make steam come out your ears and usually takes a few doses to really work."

He nodded in a sort of understanding. "I see," he muttered. "Wouldn't it be easier to just take pepper-up then?"

"I mean, yeah, but… my father isn't a wizard… so… Benylin," I held it up again as I said the name. As I started to put things back in my bag, a familiar sound caught my attention. I looked towards the door and saw a small greyish cat. "You!" I ran over to pick her up and held her over my shoulder. "I can't believe you made it in!" I whispered. I looked over at Matthew with a pleading look, hoping he wouldn't say anything to anyone.

"Secret's safe with me," he shrugged and laid down.

I sat back on my bed and let her down after she griped at me a few times. "You can't be here," I tried not to say her name, so I wouldn't attract unwanted attention. From Matthew's view, I must have been arguing with a cat, which I was… but I knew what she was saying to me. "I guess it's fine if you stay like that, but don't get caught!" She stared at me with her like-I-would expression. I sighed. "Ugh, I'm arguing with a cat," I pinched the bridge of my nose under my glasses. "I'm going to get dressed," I grabbed my clothes from the bed and left for the bathroom. "Don't wonder around, please," I called back over my shoulder.

When I got back to the room, Matthew and Avri were staring at each other on the floor. He was hunched down to almost be at eye level with her. They were glaring…

"Merlin's beard, what are you doing?" I stopped in the doorway. Neither of them broke eye contact. "Hello?" I walked towards them.

Matthew held his hand up towards me, but didn't look at me. "Wait," was all he said.

"It's a bloody staring contest," I sighed, shaking my head then running a hand through my hair. "Goodnight," I crawled into bed and faced the wall.

"UGH! Not fair!" he hit the floor and fell back towards his bed with a thud.


	3. Cheat Sheet

Below are a few lists of things that are necessary for confused readers. Not all of this information is used, but much of it is or will be at some point. Feel free to leave this up in a separate tab as a cheat sheet while you're reading Our Lives as Background Students. Thank you.

Scot stuff:

\- Haud yer wheesht – shut up

\- Ah dinnae ken – I don't know

\- Wee bit

\- Gaun yersel' – you can do it

\- Yer bum's oot the windae – nonsense

\- Bonnie/Braw – Beautiful

\- Tatties – potatoes

\- Peely-wally – pale/wan

\- Scran – food

\- Hogmanay – New Years Eve

\- Pure Barry – that's brilliant (usually sarcastic like "Bloody Brilliant, innit?")

\- Rank

\- Cludgie – toilet

\- Breeks – trousers

\- Skivvy – person with crap job (grounds keeper, janitor, etc)

\- Punny Eccy – punishment exercise (writing lines or something)

\- Cuddy – Horse

\- Piece – sandwich (Jammy piece)

\- Wibbit – tired

\- Ta – thank you

\- Dinnae Fash yerself – don't worry about it

\- It gies me the boak - makes me feel sick

\- Swatch- a quick look

\- Talent – attractive people

\- Boggin/mink/ minky – dirty

\- Dour (faced) – moody

\- Blether – chat

\- Hunner – hundred

\- Eejit – idiot

\- Greet – cry

\- Crabbit - cranky

Pointers for the accent:

Skip the T's in the middle of words "Be'er, Bu'er,

Tap R's but only the first one and never at the end of the word. "Wor'ld,

All U and OO sounds are the same. Pull and Pool are both POOL but the u is just faster.

Spanish:

\- Maldita sea todo - damn it all

\- Naranja – orange

\- Hermosa – beautiful

\- Nina – girl

\- Te amo - I love you

\- Te echo de menos - I miss you

\- Esto es muy emocionate – this is very exciting

Pointers:

Open O sounds, roll the R's, no flehm sound... that's harder for my Germanic friends out there. Hi, guys. I know it's hard.

Afrikaans:

\- Vloeke – curses

\- Ek sal liewer nie – I'd rather not

\- Naartjie – small orange

\- Dom piesang – silly banana

\- Geagte – Dear

\- Ek het jou lief – I love you

\- Vader/pa/ vaarje (dutch)– father (vaarje also means Daddy)

\- Moeder/ma/mum - mother

\- Uch - the flehmic version of Ugh, meaning a noise indicating irritation

Pointers:

V's are pronounced as F's, G's are H's, lightly tap R's, and most H or G sounds are actually flehm sounds like... hocking a loogy... CH or Ha type sounds... difficult to explain, that one.

Types of owls: Matt, Boreal owl named Cleo

Morris, great grey owl named Gemma

Avri, Horned (bubo) owl named Artimus

Rach, Barn owl named Mouse

Hair Colours

Blue: happy

Green: nervous

Yellow: jealous

Orange: irritated

Red: embarrassed

Brilliant violet: love

Lavender/grey: sad

Brown: content


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 - Catlike Behaviour

I woke up early to write the letters I'd forgotten to write the night before. I didn't really _want_ to wake up earlier than I had to, but these letters weren't going to write themselves. I told my brother how much I regretted not being there and how he'd have to show me all of his new stuff during the winter break. The letter to my grandmother told her how I'd settled in, which house I'd been assigned to, how classes were going, how much I hated the stairs, and my disappointment at not being able to bring my own broom during my first year. A duplicate of that letter was sent to my parents, but also included my excitement for the first quidditch game at the end of the week. First years never made their house teams, but it would be rather enjoyable to watch the upperclassmen beat the snot out of each other. The letter to Avri's parents was based around similar subjects, only with more attitude about how her father embarrassed her even over great distances. I told them she'd been forced to be social and that she was sick of walking down the vast halls, not that she did a lot of her own walking…

I heard a soft chirp come from the foot of my bed and I looked behind me from the desk to see Avri doing her morning stretch. Cats were so adorable. I pointed to a glass of water I had on the desk and she sleepily made her way over to it. As I was finishing up her letter, I noticed her face. She'd stuck her head just a bit too far into the glass and her eyes looked distorted. I put my hand to my face to try and stifle my chuckles, and not wake up my roommates, then decided to help her out, which she responded to with angry growls and chirps. "Good going, Jynx," I put the glass on the other side of the desk so she couldn't knock it onto the freshly written letters I had rolled up in front of me. "Hey, sign this," I pointed to the letter. She glared at me then put her paw up and let me dab a bit of ink on her pads before letting her step on the page. I blew on it to let it dry then rolled up the paper and tied a thin red ribbon around it just like the others. "Great. I'll stop by the owlery on my way to breakfast. You should get back to the tower, so you can get ready for the day." I tilted the glass so she could rinse her paw and pet her on the head. "I'm gonna take a shower," I yawned.

Matthew accompanied me to the owlery in a tower near the Great Hall to drop off a letter of his own. His boreal owl, Cleo, sat on a perch near the window. She was smaller than she looked when she was flying and she was even more dwarfed by the snowy owl on her left. Gemma was closer to the archway leading to the stairs. She was asleep in one of the cubby holes with her head curled daintily into her wing. I set my bundle of scrolls next to her, each labelled with where they needed to go. My family didn't live too far apart from each other, so she didn't have to go out of her way too much to deliver more than one. I smiled at her and let her sleep. She knew what to do when she woke up. I then went to find Artimus, who was also sleeping, but was laying across a branch with one wing hanging down. I tickled the feathers at the tip of the extended wing, which made him shake his head until he woke up. I laughed then showed him the letter. He cocked his head at me then stuck out his large foot for me to tie it to his leg. Once the paper was secure, he took off through the window, nearly running into Matthew's head on the way out. I rolled my eyes. The Austin owl was definitely one of a kind…

"Don't overdo it. Stop if you need to," Matthew said, holding Cleo out of the window on his hand. He gave her a nudge and she took off, going in the opposite direction of Artimus.

"Hey," I said as he turned around and started towards the stairs with me, "if you're from America, shouldn't you go to the wizarding school there? Why come all the way to Europe just for school?"

He looked back towards the window and put his hand on the back of his neck. "My dad is in Germany for a few years and I came with him. It didn't make sense to go farther away for school," he glanced down at me as we walked down the stairs to the hall.

"What about your mum? Does she still live there, or did she come with you?" I asked, not realising I was pushing too much.

He was quiet for a minute. "My mom lives in the states still. They got divorced when I was six," he said bluntly like it was something everyone knew. I hadn't had much experience with divorces, but I had an adopted older brother, so I kind of knew how he felt about everyone knowing their business. Everyone who'd met my oldest brother would comment on how he didn't look like us and we'd have to explain. I hated it because he was family. It didn't matter what he looked like.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have pried," I apologised, looking down at my feet.

"No, it's fine. I live with my mom during the summer, so I still get to see her," he sounded as if it was no big deal. I felt bad for him.

The rest of the walk to the Great Hall was silent. We met up with Avri at the table, where she was already eating. I sat down and stared at all of the food.

"I'm still not used to how amazing these meals are. This is heaven," I piled sausage and eggs onto my plate then stuffed a cinnamon roll into my mouth while I picked out some toast and buttered bread rolls.

"Oh wow, we don't have rolls like this in the states," Matthew picked up one of the rolls. It was a brotchen.

"You should be seeing more of those now that you're living in Germany," I said. "Germans and Italians make the best food," I almost got lost in my own dream world where everything is made of food.

I guess I was staring at my plate with a silly grin because Avri snapped in front of my face and said, "Earth to Morris. Come back to us." She smiled at me, but it only lasted for a few second. "You gelled your hair." I nodded. She glared at me, but didn't say anything else on the subject.

"We have Herbology first today," Matthew groaned, curling his lip up before taking an angry chomp out of his compiled breakfast sandwich that was barely holding itself together.

I shovelled a couple of sausage pieces into my mouth, watching him eat like a pro. "What a champ," I thought as he somehow managed to keep his fried egg from sliding out onto his plate. "Do you hate plants or something?" I asked after clearing my throat.

He took a second to respond between bites. "Not really, but I don't really like them either. Then again, I'm not really interested in half the things here," he trailed off.

"Then what are you even here for?" Avri chimed in, looking like she'd rather be anywhere else, too. They were more alike than they thought they were…

"School is a requirement, obviously," he made eye contact with her and I swore another contest was going to break out. Maybe she would be more likely to blink as a human than as a cat. This intrigued me, so I watched them carefully as they spoke.

"Fair enough," Avri spoke softly, still staring, and took a small bite of the scrambled eggs she'd spent the beginning of the conversation smothering in salt.

As hard as I tried to catch one of them blinking, I ended up getting distracted by my own thoughts again. Matthews eyes in the morning looked like a shark's eyes. I thought of how cool sharks were and pondered whether any bull sharks could have made it into the black lake… That would be cool, to have some sharks swim passed as we were playing checkers in the common room, but Scotland was way too cold for bull sharks…

"Morris," Avri's sharp tone cut through my thoughts like a thresher shark's tail. I looked up at her, wondering why she was standing. "Class. Let's go," she waved me up urgently. I looked down, realising I'd finished all my food without even remembering I ate it. I stood quickly, but grabbed a few extra buttered rolls to take with me before running after them.

The greenhouses were larger than any greenhouses I'd seen until that point. My grandmother had a knack for gardening, so I knew a little bit about different soil types and a few flowers, but this looked to be a whole new side to plants. The ceiling stood, maybe, twenty feet high. The A-frame glass was stained and let in a warm glow from the bright world outside. Through the glass, I could see a stone serpentine dragon laying across the roof of the neighbouring greenhouse. There was a long table running down the centre of the area from one end to the other, leaving only enough space to walk around it without knocking over the pots near the walls. The long table was surrounded by small, round stools that fit neatly under it when not in use, and the top of the table was covered in loose dirt and half-empty flower pots. At the far end of the table, there stood a short, plump woman with more grey in her hair than the brown that remained. She could barely be seen over the clutter on the table in front of her.

I took a bite of my roll and looked from side to side. "Avri?" I turned around and found her standing by the door, partially hiding behind the glass wall. "Avri," I walked over to her, "come on."

She shook her head reluctantly. "Don't wanna," she glanced around at the other students walking in.

"Avri," I grabbed her wrist and started to drag her in.

"No," she snapped before suddenly becoming lighter and slipping out of my grasp. I turned back around to see the little grey cat creeping back towards the castle.

"Can't have that," I glared at her. Shoving my roll in my mouth, I darted after her, catching her around the ribs. "Ww- hvv- oh- be- n- clah-," I tried to speak while chewing. She struggled, but I held her close to my chest. "Back we go," I said when I finally choked down my snack. She growled, looking defeated, as I brought her inside and sat next to Matthew. I pinned her on my lap and pet her head. "Now, be a good girl and stay," I scolded. She glared at me, but didn't move. I pet her again then dropped my book onto the table in front of me.

The Gryffindors were next to the Slytherins on the righthand side of the Greenhouse and the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs were on the left. When we were all seated and calm, the lady at the end of the table began to speak.

"Good morning, dears," she began with a warm and comforting voice. "My name is Professor Sprout and I am your Herbology teacher as well as the Hufflepuff's Head of House. I certainly look forward to working with you wonderful students and hope that I can get you to enjoy this class as much as I do." She clapped her hands together excitedly.

I looked down at the disgruntled cat in my lap, complying only because my hand was on her shoulders holding her down. "Not likely," I thought. "It'd be some kind of miracle to make her like this class."

Professor Sprout did a basic introduction to the class and went over the things we'd be covering in our first year. She had us open our books to a section on Spiky Bush, a thorny plant that shoots said thorns at people who get too close.

"Spiky bush?" I whispered to Matthew. "That sure is a creative name," I stated sarcastically. He rolled his eyes, but with a smirk this time. I think he was warming up to me.

"This is me as a plant," he joked, making a gesture of thorns coming out of his skin. I figured he'd be more likely to shoot them out of his eyes with the glares that he gave the other students.

The Professor decided to split us into groups in order to discuss what we were reading and "introduce ourselves". She put one student from every house in each group, meaning Matthew and I were split up… Avri and I weren't very social, obviously, so being split up from the only other person I could tolerate was frustrating. Avri stayed in cat form to stay with me, as well as avoiding doing any actual work, so we were pared with a short brunette Ravenclaw boy, the shy blonde boy from Hufflepuff, and the chipper Gryffindor girl we'd met the day before.

"Hi, I'm Roger," the Ravenclaw boy extended his hand, but only the girl took it. The Hufflepuff and I just stared at him like he was crazy.

"I'm Rachel. Pleased to meet you," she smiled, making the room feel brighter, which pissed me off a bit.

The two socialites looked at the blonde boy expectantly. He withdrew a little bit, fiddling with his sleeves. "Cedric," he said quietly, not making eye contact. Then the three sets of eyes fell on me, then the cat, then back to me.

"Uh," I blanked, like I'd forgotten my own name. "James," I finally said, trying to stare at all of them at the same time, but failing. Their eyes fell back to the cat. "She's Jynx. She doesn't go anywhere without me," I fumbled my words. Feeling like an idiot, I was about to correct myself, but then the Gryffindor girl laughed. It was a charming laugh. Her glow may have irritated me so early in the morning, but her laugh was cute. I smiled back, blushing in my embarrassment.

"She's so cute. Can I pet her?" she asked, but before I could warn her, she dove in and began to stroke along Avri's spine. I could see her eyes twitch. She spun around, clawing me in the thigh on accident, and swatted at the Rachel's hand. I bit the inside of my cheek and pulled her back to my chest.

"Sorry," I said quickly, but the girl was still smiling. It was almost creepy. Like she was determined to pet this cat before the day was out.

"We should probably do the reading," Roger chimed in. I nodded in agreement and put Avri back down on my lap, giving her a glare for attacking an innocent bystander. She shrugged in her cat-like way then curled up under the edge of my robes.

The rest of the class was spent discussing the, might I say poorly named, Spiky Bush and its practical applications as well as how to get rid of it; _incendio,_ another creatively named wizarding word. I decided quickly that the Cedric kid was faking it. He wasn't as shy as he was letting on, but he had everyone fooled. I also came to the conclusion that Roger was a goody-two-shoes and would probably end up being a Prefect. This brunette girl was a mystery to me, though. She smiled too much and seemed to enjoy everything. I wondered if she ever got angry… or if she was scary when she finally snapped.

Defence Against the Dark Arts. What wonders awaited us in our most anticipated class? I picked up the sleeping cat from my lap and laid her across the back of my neck on my shoulders. I carried both of our things under my arm and followed Matthew out of the greenhouse. We both looked exhausted. Neither of us were morning people and that many students in such a tight space was suffocating.

We began the long walk from the greenhouses behind the castle to the North Tower. As we walked along the hallway, I pulled my last roll out of my robes and began to nibble. Avri woke up, but didn't move. Her fur brushed against my cheek as she looked around.

"Ms. Austin, I do believe we've discussed this before," a familiar voice came from behind us. I stopped and flinched, waiting for her to get heavy so I could jump out of the way. To my relief, she jumped off before changing herself back. I sighed internally. "Thank you. Next time is detention. You don't want that during your first week of school, do you?"

Avri shook her head. "No, ma'am," she replied softly. I still hadn't turned around, hoping I wasn't in trouble, too. I prayed under my breath.

"Mr. James, good morning," she spoke softly to Matthew. I could tell she was smiling. "Mr. Morris," she began and I prayed harder, "try to keep your meals to the Great Hall."

I bit my tongue to keep from cursing. "Yes, Professor. Sorry, Professor," I squinted guiltily, smelling my roll under my nose and quickly shoving it into my mouth to hide the evidence.

"Now, get to class. Don't be late," I heard a warm giggle then her footsteps continued down the hall until we could no longer hear them.

Avri snickered and couldn't look at me without losing her composure, and Matthew cracked a smile. I swallowed my roll and erupted into laughter at my own stupid actions.

"You two are weird," he said, shaking his head.

"Right?" Avri smiled.

"We should go," Matthew turned away from us. Avri and I both nodded and the three of us continued towards the North Tower.

"Carry your own books," I held the duplicate books I'd been carrying out to her. She turned her nose up and ignored me. "Jynx," I walked sideways and bumped her into a column.

"Fine," she snatched them from me and held them under her arm. I smiled and she rolled her eyes.

The Defence classroom was a large square with a heavy iron chandelier hanging in the centre of the tall ceiling, surrounded by a dragon skeleton. On the ground, several individual desks with ink and quills were spaced a metre apart from each other in all directions, eight desks across at the front and about ten rows towards the back. The front of the classroom had a screen for projections and several portraits of famous wizards and witches, one of which was Merlin, or at least a man painted to look like him since he didn't look like the one in my common room. Behind the screen was a small staircase leading up to a small office belonging to our professor.

We wondered into the room and found our seats with our houses. Each house had two columns. We filled in the three seats in the middle that weren't taken yet, Matthew and I on the right with the Slytherins, and Avri in the closest row to us with the Ravenclaws. I looked around, thinking something was strange. Everyone was silent. Before the other classes began, the students would chat and bicker, but this class was still.

After a while, a sound was finally heard; heavy footsteps. A large burly man walked down the stairs from the office and appeared in front of us. He was broad shouldered and had a square jaw covered by a thick, but short, brown beard. His hair's natural waves grazed his shoulders and stood out against the curve of the black beret that he wore more towards the right side of his head. He wore a nice black dress shirt, unbuttoned at the collar, that tucked into a blue and green and black plaid kilt, held up by a thick brown leather belt. The sporran, or Gaelic pocket pouch, he wore was also brown leather, but had horse hair trimming its seams. The kilt ended at his knees, where his black socks with a single blue stripe began, running down into heavy leather boots. He looked like he'd just left the war. Which war? Didn't matter. He just left it, victorious.

The big man smirked and what came out of his mouth next was almost another language entirely. "G'mornin'. Welcom' tae ye firs' Defence 'gainst th' Dark Art lesson," he began with the thickest Scottish accent I'd ever heard. I knew a fair number of Scots, living in England and all, but they were usually from the south. This guy was clearly from Edenborough or farther north. "A'm Professor Buchanon. A'm aff tae tell ye th' rules o' ma room." The entire class was taken aback, staring intently at our new professor and trying to catch on to what he was saying to us. "Foremaist, thare wull be na talkin' in th' lesson 'less yer asked a direct quaistion," he held up his thumb to start the count. "Seicont, th' hings ye see er nae tae be touched 'til ah tell ye tae, 'n' dinnae uise yer wands whin we aren't usin` thaim." I was beginning to catch on to his accent by rule number three, but my thoughts circled around how insanely Scottish this man was. I knew the Scots were proud, but this was ridiculous. "Three, nae everything in that book o' yers is true, sae if ye hae ony quaistions dinnae be feart tae ask at th' end o' class," he said, but he was so intimidating, I wasn't sure how many of us would actually try to ask him anything.

"Go on, we're already late," a girl's voice echoed from the hall. Two figures appeared in the doorway, one tall and lanky and the other short and a bit plump, both Hufflepuffs. I thought it was strange that a couple of badgers couldn't manage to _find_ their way to class on time.

"Git'ben," he waved them in and pointed them to their seats. They apologised several times and scurried into the class. "Haud yer wheesht 'n' sit doon," he gestured again towards their desks at the back of the room then continued talking to the class. "If ye'r late ah wull nae rame masell. Best nae be late, then," he smirked. "Noo, let's juist jump richt intae it. Th' foremaist lesson is oan Fire Crabs, sae pull oot yer books 'n' caw tae page three hunner 'n' fourty," he instructed, leaning against the front of his desk with a smile and crossing his arms over his chest, scratching just behind his beard. We all opened our books and turned to the page with the strange looking turtle-crabs. "Fire crabs ur rank wee pests that gob fire oot o' thair arses. Thay hae th' heid o' a tur'le 'n' a shell hoaching with jewells. Fur this reason, they're a protected species. Mony a wizard haes made a cauldron fae yin o' thair shells 'n' muggles gilravage thaim fur th' hunt," he explained as we looked over the drawings in the book. "Yer Care o' Magical Creatures assistant professor, wha ye wull catch up wi` in yer third year if nae sooner, mated yin o' thae pests wi' a manticore. Ah think his bum's oot th' windae, breedin' blast-ended skrewts, bit whit dae ah ken," he gave a bit of a chuckle.

I looked over to Avri, who was making a face at her book. I wasn't sure if she was confused about what Professor Buchanon was saying, the weird looking turtle-crab, or both. Then I looked at Matthew. He was tracing his reading with his finger lazily. He looked completely composed. I stared down at the pictures of the bejewelled creature, memorising its strange characteristics. We listened to the professor ramble on for the next hour about this and that. Finally, the class came to an end.

"Ye be'er read th' chapter thare fur thare wull be a test in th' neist lesson," he said as we began to pack our things.

The students were silent until they left the classroom, then the chatting and sighs of relief echoed through the halls. Matthew, Avri, and I all left together and, as soon as we crossed the threshold, Matthew nearly collapsed against the closest wall and his composure broke.

"Can either of you translate anything that just happened? What language was that?" he stared, wide-eyed, at the two of us. Avri and I shared a glance then exploded into a barrage of snickering and giggles.

"English," I cracked up. "I'll admit, it was a bit overwhelming, but you didn't understand any of it?" I asked, feeling the pity creep across my face.

"You mean, none of it?" Avri joined in. He shook his head. I felt bad that we were laughing at him, but I couldn't stop. Maybe it was from the overdose of Scotland that we'd just received.

"Here," a kind voice popped up beside us. "I took notes. He's not that hard to understand, so I can translate for you if you'd like," the brunette girl, Rachel, gave him a kind smile. She had a Scottish accent, too, but it wasn't nearly as harsh. He looked her up and down, clearly judging her house colours, then reluctantly took the notebook she'd extended out to him.

"Thanks," he stood to his usual slouching position, still towering over the rest of us by at least 15 centimetres, and opened her small brown notebook to skim through her notes. "So that's what he said," he furrowed his eyebrows as we watched his eyes dart from side to side.

"Yeah, just give it back to me during lunch or something," she smiled one more time before waving a quick goodbye and running off to follow her housemates.

My eyes followed her as she darted down the hall. "Does anyone else think she talks too quickly?" I looked back over my shoulder to see Avri grinning widely at me. "What?"

She shook her head. "Nothing," she lied, still smirking. "Matt, you should make Morris give it back to her instead."

"Matthew," he mumbled under his breath as he closed the book and tucked it with his others under his arm. "I don't like nicknames," he shot a glare down at Avri, which ignited some sparks in their new found glaring rivalry.

"Matthew is so long though," I joked. "We could call you Mattie," his glare shot to me as I walked backwards down the hall. I couldn't wait for lunch. I was starving. "Or Matteo," I joked again, adding new nicknames as they followed me to the Great Hall.

"Keep it up, _Jimmy_ ," he hissed, shoving his free hand in his pocket.

I glared back at him. "Fair point, mate, fair point."

Lunch was a grand spread. Today there were soups, chips, fish, potatoes, pies, and a variety of other foods. I sat happily at our end of the table and immediately filled my plate. Lemon fish and chips was my favourite, and I used almost as much salt as Avri did. There was also a wide assortment of juices, which I dipped into as well, filling my glass and the ones next to me with apple, pumpkin, grape, and carrot juice. Avri took a few bites, but then turned into a cat and sat on my lap.

"You're not hungry?" I asked. She shook her head and curled into a small furry lump. "Suit yourself, more for me," I joked, sliding the rest of her food onto my plate.

"She's been sleeping a lot today," Matthew mentioned while trying to pick up the fish on his plate with a fork, but struggling as it kept falling apart.

"Scoop, don't stab," I suggested, then looked down at Jynx. "You're right, though. I think she's been awake for maybe an hour all day." I tickled her ear hairs and watched her face twitch with irritation. "Maybe you're spending too much time as a cat. Cats sleep for two thirds of their life, you know." She swatted at my hand then rubbed her face with her paw, looking completely adorable in all of her grumpiness. "Seriously, though, you can't sleep through all of our classes."

The fish was really good. If this was going to become everyday life, I was going to be pudgy by the end of the year. Matthew put away a lot, too, but he was bigger than me, so it was to be expected. When he finished his food, he copied the notes out of Rachel's journal. We hadn't covered much that wasn't in the book, so I didn't really know what all she wrote down, but he was scribbling away like a mad man. Finally, he closed both books and slid hers over to me.

"The cat said to give this to you," he said with a bland expression. I knew it was his normal look, but he just looked completely fed up with everything, like everything was exhausting and too much trouble. I related to that almost too much.

"So you _were_ listening," I said with a sarcastic gasp, taking the book, but not knowing what to do with it.

"I do have ears, you know," he said, putting more chips on his plate. "These fries are good."

I stared blankly at him. "Fries…," I repeated, contemplating where I'd heard that word used as a noun before. "Ah, yes. Yes they are," I remembered my father telling me about his American friend saying something similar. We shared blank stares for a minute as the communication barrier slowly became awkward, as most things were when I was involved. My gaze moved from him to the book and then to the girl it belonged to. I wasn't sure how to give it back to her. She was on the other side of the room, and a Gryffindor to boot. "Maybe you should give this back to her after all," I tried to slide it back to him, but he stood abruptly and shoved the last few chips from his plate into his mouth.

"Nope," he said, turning to leave with his books.

"Wait!" I was about to stand up, too, but Avri was still on my lap. I looked down and saw a satisfied smirk on her smug little cat face. I wasn't sure what she did, but she scared him off.

For the next few minutes I stared at Rachel, the walls, and my plate, wondering what to say and how to approach without making a fool of myself, as anxiety-ridden people do. Avri got off of my lap and curled up next to my leg, allowing me to get up, if I could motivate myself to do so. Finally, I got up the courage to go over there. I swung my leg confidently around the bench to get up, but then a voice stopped me.

"Hey, could I get that back please?" She had come over to our table and leaned across it with her hand extended towards the notebook.

During my off-set frustration, I said nothing. I had _just_ decided to go over there and she'd _ruined_ it. I guess it was easier and less humiliating if I messed up at my own table, but still. "Um, y-yeah," I stuttered, letting her take it. "I was about to give it back to you. Matthew left in a hurry. I don't know why, though," I over-explained, feeling my face turn red from being put on the spot. If you didn't know already, I'm not good with people.

"That's fine," she smiled. "I just need it back for next class. Do you know if he got everything he needed?" she held the book in her arms against her chest.

"I think he did," I replied.

Her eyes fell to the bench where the grey and orange cat was still napping, or at least pretending to. "Can I pet her?" she asked, apparently willing to risk being wacked again. I could see determination in her eyes and wasn't sure if I'd be able to stop her, but I'd try.

"I don't think-," but before I could continue, she'd come around the table and sat next to us. Her hand brushed the back of Avri's neck lightly. I flinched, but nothing happened. Avri was either out cold or didn't care, which was unusual.

"You said her name was Jynx, right?" she asked. I nodded. "That's my middle name," she beamed down at her success. Avri's eye wedged open enough for me to see her notice that I wasn't the one petting her. She growled lowly then rolled quickly onto her side to attack the hand. Rachel didn't pull away. She picked up my best mate and held her up by the armpits. "You're such a pretty girl," Rachel said in a higher pitched voice like she was talking to a baby. Avri growled and I could see the fire in her narrowed pupils.

"Ha!" I started laughing. It was the funniest thing I'd ever seen. Avri's glare shot to me, but my smile held firm. "I'm not helping you," I chuckled. Rachel pulled my best mate onto her shoulder and snuggled her small, fluffy body. Avri tried to crawl away, but the more she struggled, the tighter Rachel held onto her. I stood from the bench and looked down at the girls. "Alright, Jynx, it's time for class," I lifted her out of Rachel's arms and set her up on my shoulder. Her claws poked through my robes, but didn't stab me. She growled next to my ear until I picked up my books and waved a goodbye to the Gryffindor. "You can stop now," I poked her nose as I walked through the large doorway. I could feel her tiny body shaking in frustration.

She waited until we'd rounded the corner and were away from the other students in the hallway to turn back into herself. I handed her textbooks back to her. "What the hell, Morris?" she pushed my arm, making me drift to the side a bit as we walked towards our next class. "Don't let people touch me," she hissed. I snickered. "It's not funny! I'm serious!"

"She just did it. Not like I could stop her. Those eyes, Avri…," I squinted one eye thinking about it. "She's not one to be trifled with." I patted my robe pockets only to be disappointed that I'd left without grabbing anything to snack on during History of Magic.

Uch… History of Magic with Professor Binns. Professor Binns was a sort of short old man, balding on top and greying on the sides. His thick rimmed glasses sat on the tip of his nose and looked like they'd fall off if he hunched over any further. He had a thick coat, like he'd been out in the woods on a snowy day, over an old vest with loose buttons and a pocket watch. Oh, yeah, and he was a _ghost_. It was like he didn't even acknowledge the fact that he was dead. He just kept coming to class, even without a body.

The first few minutes of the class, my mind was filled with thoughts about his situation. I crossed my arms on my desk and rested my chin on them, looking over my glasses at my new professor. I wondered how long he'd been a ghost and when he finally realised it'd happened, _if_ he realised it'd happened... Did he just not eat before he died? How did he not realise he didn't have to use the loo? Did he not notice that he couldn't pick anything up? I closed my eyes for a second, listening to his hoarse voice, which sounded like chalk on a blackboard.

"That was back in 1378 when the soap blizzard began. The wizarding economic bubble was…," he droned on. I peeked up at him as he stared down at his desk. He looked like an old, tired, Bilbo Baggins. That was another thing I should write to Mum about, unless she already packed it. My favourite book might as well have been in there, since there were a bunch of things I wouldn't even use. I thought about all the things I had yet to pull out of that endless bag of mine.

"Morris," I sat up quickly when I heard my name and looked from side to side, thinking I was being stared at for falling asleep and that I was going to lose house points. To my relief, most of the class was either drooling or drifting. Cedric was leaning so hard on his hand he was about to fall off of his desk, which would have been hilarious. "Morris," Avri said again. I sleepily glanced over at her. She aggressively waved a piece of parchment out for me to grab with a determined look in her eyes.

"Oh, we're passing notes," I thought, taking the paper from her hand. Professor Bin's class may have been boring beyond belief, but he made it clear that the one thing he would not tolerate was talking. It was simply a lecture class and we were responsible for taking notes. I knew then and there that the only way I was going to retain any of the information he was blathering on about was to read the textbook in my free time.

We had astronomy at midnight, so the few hours we had after History and before dinner were our own to do with as we pleased, as long as we stayed out of trouble. After sleeping through most of History of Magic, I was till tired… and hungry…

"Uch, I'm exhausted," I sighed, leaning against Avri's shoulder.

"That's what you get for sleeping through class," she teased.

"You're one to talk," I glared at her before patting down my pockets, yet again leading to disappointment. My stomach growled, and I frowned. "Didn't you nod off, too?"

"Actually no," she looked down at her notebook.

I looked sceptically at her. "So if I asked you what we covered today, you could tell me the cliff-notes?"

"Pft, no," she snorted. "I was sketching." Suddenly, she stopped in the corridor and looked around. "Where's Matthew? I haven't seen him since lunch. Kinda got used to having him tag along," she squinted into the distance, scanning some of the students walking by the neighbouring hall.

"He's kind of hard to miss, being a beanstalk and all," I pointed out. She shrugged, apparently not caring as much as she let on.

"There's food in my common room, if you're interested," she looked down at the hand that gripped my stomach. I nodded and followed her up the abundance of stairs to get to the infamous riddle knocker.

The gorgeous bronze eagle gazed into our souls. It was incredibly intimidating. "Actually, I don't think I'm allowed in there anyway. Won't we get in trouble if we get found out?" I was really nervous about breaking the rules. It was bad enough I had the same last name as my brothers, and they certainly left a shadow for me to walk in… I didn't need extra things getting me into trouble. Not to mention I was already being watched by McGonagall.

"What can travel around the world while staying in a corner?" the eagle asked as we approached, it's voice ringing through my ears even though it wasn't actually that loud.

"A stamp. Open up, would you?" Avri demanded with a huff.

"Children, always in a hurry," it said, the door swinging open as she was about to walk into it. Its voice sounded softer now than it did before, perhaps because it was less intimidating than its initial appearance, or maybe it only sounds intimidating to non-Ravenclaws that are trying to get in.

"Don't talk back to me, you stupid bird," she hissed, storming into the room. "Are you coming?" she turned around and watched me. I looked at the eagle then at Avri and back to the bird. It said nothing, so I slowly crept passed and into the common room.

The Ravenclaw common room was amazing. Everything was blue and bronze, making the room look warm and cosy. There was a star-like glow that came off of the blue curtains and the ceiling had misty blue drapes connecting the point of the dome ceiling, which was painted with stars, to the tops of the walls. There was an alcove library filled from floor to ceiling with books, in the centre of which was a statue of a beautiful woman guarded by two bronze eagles. The far end of the room had a bronze trimmed door that led up some stone steps to the dormitory.

Avri tossed me an apple from a bowl on a nearby table while I stared in awe. "This is bloody brilliant. Why do you ever leave?" I eyed the bookshelves, jealous that I didn't have that many books at home, and took a bite out of what was probably the best apple I'd ever tasted.

"I have to leave for class. The problem is getting back in afterwards…," her piercing gaze shot towards the door.

"So that's why you came downstairs last night," I nodded in understanding. "What did it ask you?"

She rolled her eyes. "What came first, the chicken or the egg?" she quoted. "Like I'm supposed to know. A chicken has to lay an egg but the egg has to be there for the chicken to even exist, so I don't have a clue," she flopped onto one of the French lounge chairs. There was only one other person in the room. She was a third year, maybe, with short, curly black hair who seemed too enthralled with her book to care about what we were up to.

"Egg," I said, chewing a piece of juicy goodness. "Dinosaurs existed before chickens. Reptiles have been around for a long time," I explained.

She stared at me for a moment. "I think the sorting hat screwed up. I think we were switched," I couldn't tell if she was joking or not. I _did_ enjoy reading and math, in fact I'd read all of the _Eyewitness_ books since their release the year prior and did math as a hobby some days, but I felt a bit to whimsical at heart to be quite so calculating. Then again, the basic traits for Ravenclaw didn't quite fit with Avri either. She was a genius, but she was so clumsy with her words and easily aggravated that I thought she might not make it for a while there… but here we were.

"But I like being a Slytherin," I said quietly. "My common room is cool, but it's so moist looking, even though it's not, and the water is murky. This room is blue and breezy. It's wonderful. And I like the riddles, but I'm sure that would get annoying after a while. Having a steady password for a couple weeks is easier to keep up with, I suppose." I redirected myself, noticing I was going off track. "But I like being Slytherin. Ravenclaws are lame," I joked.

"You take that back," Avri tilted her chin up and to the side.

I laughed. "I won't," I said, even though I'd actually thought I'd be in this house, too. My mother was a Ravenclaw and so was my nan. My older brothers were both Ravenclaws, so it was expected of me to follow their lead, but the tide shifted and I ended up a Slytherin, which I was pretty proud of after I settled into it. I wasn't sure how my parents would react, though, and I hadn't spoken to either of my brothers since we'd left home a few days ago.

Avri glared at me as I took another bite of my apple. "You're lucky you're like a brother to me," she tried to hide her smile, but it was pretty obvious.

"You're rather smart, you know," I stared back at her out of the corner of my eye. She needed to take more credit for the things she was good at, not just notice the things she sucked at. Not even older wizards or witches could pull off becoming an animagous, let alone a child, and being able to maintain it over long periods of time was incredible. I couldn't even control my own hair without cheating.

"I don't know where you got that idea, but whatever," she shrugged, staring blankly at me.

"I mean it," I finished the apple and grabbed a second before sitting across from her, deciding on whether or not to take a nap for the next hour or so then eat the apple, or to eat the apple first then take a nap. I decided to eat the apple first.

It wasn't long before we'd both fallen asleep, cosied near the library alcove on a pile of throw pillows and blankets that we took from every couch and lounge chair in the room. About two hours later, we were woken by the sounds of the upperclassmen coming back from their classes to get ready for supper. I tried to roll back over, but Avri elbowed me to get up. Sleep was great, but I hated waking up…


End file.
